State Sanctioned Discrimination

The Indiana state legislature has been in the harsh spotlight since passing a Religious Freedom Law that would make religious beliefs a valid legal defense against government regulations. This law, backed by the conservative right, was seen as a move to discriminate against or refuse service to gays and lesbians with state approval. Listen to learn how the national media and business community responded by forcing the legislature to pass another bill that does not allow discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Related Current Events

The First Amendment protects freedom of religion and freedom of expression, but what about religious expression? The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case where religious expression and company policy clash. When a 17-year-old Muslim woman applied to work at Abercrombie and Fitch, her applicant score was downgraded because she wore a headscarf to her interview. Abercrombie argues that wearing caps is against their “Look Policy” and that Samantha Elauf should have asked for an accommodation. Elauf argues that Abercrombie broke the law banning religious discrimination in employment. Listen to learn more about this First Amendment debate.

Update: The Supreme Court ruled in an 8-to-1 decision in favor of a Muslim woman who was denied a job because of her headscarf.

A teacher in Georgia was fired from his position teaching music at a Catholic school because of his sexual orientation. He is now suing the school for discrimination based on his sex. The case has some subtlety because it's not illegal to discriminate against gays in Georgia, but it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sex. Listen to this public radio story with your class to learn about this interesting discrimination case.

School sponsored prayer was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963. The case that led to this decision began in November 1956 when a 16-year-old schoolboy protested his public school’s mandatory prayer and Bible reading period by reading silently from the Koran and refusing to stand for the Lord’s Prayer. This simple act of resistance led to a huge change in the way public schools interact with religion. In the early 1960s, 40% of school districts in the U.S. had mandatory Bible reading and prayer; it is now unconstitutional for any public school to sponsor prayer. However, there continue to be challenges regarding prayer and religion in public schools. In 2012, a Rhode Island teen complained about a prayer banner at her high school. Listen to learn how the community and courts responded to her challenge.

Language Challenge Level

These levels of listening complexity can help teachers choose stories for their students. The levels do not relate to the content of the story, but to the complexity of the vocabulary, sentence structure and language in the audio story.

NOTE: Listenwise stories are intended for students in grades 5-12 and for English learners with intermediate language skills or higher.

Low

These stories are easier to understand and are a good starting point for everyone.

Medium

These stories have an average language challenge for students and can be scaffolded for English learners.

High

These stories have challenging vocabulary and complex language structure.